The House of Representatives’ health committee has moved to next week the continuation of its hearing on the Department of Health’s program to vaccinate public school children against dengue.
The move came after 1-Sagip party list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta demanded that resource persons invited to the hearing first get the approval of their respective agencies before they speak to the committee.
Marcoleta also described as “fishy” the fact that the committee did not schedule former Health Secretary Janette Garin to speak during its first hearing set on Monday.
“I move that we defer this inquiry because the very person, the most important person involved in this inquiry, was not invited,” he said.
The committee thus moved to adjourn the Monday hearing and hear the matter again on Nov. 29.
Garin attended Monday’s hearing to manifest her plan to go abroad from this week until Christmas.
Since the hearing was cancelled, Garin said she would be willing to fly back to the country next week.
“I will take full accountability. I would just like these people spreading misinformation to take accountability,” Garin said. “It will be an injustice for our children to be misled, to be taken out of this program only to suffer from infectious diseases that’s been killing hundreds.”
Anthony Leachon, an independent director of Philippine Health Insurance Corp., expressed disappointment since he was not able to speak out.
Leachon was supposed to elaborate why he pushed for the suspension of the supposedly “rushed” immunization program until the vaccine has been thoroughly studied.
Quezon City 4th District Rep. Angelina Tan, author of House Resolution No. 444 and committee chair, explained that her decision not to invite Garin to the second hearing was her way of organizing the turns of various resource persons to speak.
Tan said that instead of Garin, she wanted to hear first the thoughts of “people on the ground,” including the members of the Food and Drug Administration who approved the tetravalent dengue vaccine manufactured by Sanofi-Pasteur.
Tan told reporters that she just wanted to ensure that the resource persons would be able to speak without having to mind other officials present during the hearing.
“My fear was that if everyone’s around… I don’t know what they’d say. So, all I want is they will answer based on their conscience,” she said in an interview.